Chapter 385: Venom in the Veins

Her mind scrambled to piece together what had happened. She remembered the fight with the Trihydras. How she had been confronting Holly, but then two Trihydras had shown up. She remembered trying to fight one, but then the other — seeing that Holly had collapsed — moved toward Sophia.

She remembered falling face-flat on the snow-filled ground. She was sure that was the reason for her headache. She remembered the dream about Ronan and Sam and the little girl, along with the strange men, but she did not remember how she got here.

She frowned. Could it be that the Trihydras had carried her here? But why? They were not merciful creatures. If she was unconscious, then they should have taken the opportunity to get rid of her, right?

It didn’t make sense. And now that she thought about it, why had the second Trihydra left Holly when Holly was unconscious? Like Holly wasn’t prey enough? Why had it joined the first in attacking Sophia instead?

The questions swirled through her mind, causing even more headache.

Maybe the Trihydras had really carried her here and maybe they had some reason for doing so. The books did say that most beasts in Nirvana were intelligent — the Trihydra too.

Her stomach twisted violently at the idea.

Sophia pulled her knees toward her chest and buried her face briefly into her arms, forcing her breathing to steady. Panic would get her killed faster than venom ever could.

"Think, Sophia. There must be something..." She shook her head.

Rather than trying to understand what was going on now, she should focus on how to escape. There must have been a reason why Orion had told her to run if she ever saw a Trihydra nest.

And again, Orion was the only one she had ever seen fight a Trihydra — and even he had not come out unscathed. Now that the nest was empty, she had to go. She had to look for a way to escape.

She looked down at her body and noticed there were no injuries except for her ankle, which ached a bit.

She gathered herself, lifted her head again with eyes full of determination — and then froze.

A sound drifted through the nest. It was soft and broken, like a low, strained groan.

Sophia stilled and listened for the sound, just to be sure her ears were not playing tricks on her. And she heard it again — a soft groan. She wondered if it was from an animal, but further listening proved it wasn’t.

Every nerve in Sophia’s body went taut.

She heard a shallow intake of breath, like whoever it was was struggling to breathe, and then a pained groan followed.

Someone else was here — and whoever it was, was alive.

Slowly, carefully, she moved through the nest following the sound, keeping her movements controlled and silent. The damp ground sucked faintly at her boots as she shifted her weight. She forced herself not to rush — sudden motion could draw attention, and if a Trihydra returned—

She swallowed the thought.

Her ears tracked the sound and her feet carried her toward it while her eyes searched for anything and everything. Her hand stayed near her sword in case whoever it was meant her harm.

Behind the broken shell of the already-hatched egg, partially obscured by shadow and tangled root structures, something small moved.

Sophia took a cautious step forward.

Then another — and then paused in shock, because although she had no idea what she had been expecting to see, this was not it.

He couldn’t have been more than eight or ten. His body was curled slightly inward, shoulders hunched as if trying to make himself smaller. His clothes were torn and soaked with dried blood, fabric stiff and darkened in ugly patches. One sleeve hung in ragged strips, exposing skin beneath that was scraped raw and bruised.

He was shivering violently, and even then she noticed he had a pouch lying right beside him on the floor.

His teeth chattered faintly as his free hand clutched tightly at his opposite arm, fingers pressed into what looked like a deep wound.

His face was pale, lips tinged faintly blue from cold and shock.

He lifted his head slightly at the sound of her movement, eyes widening with raw fear when he saw her.

Sophia’s heart clenched painfully when she saw him.

She immediately tore a strip from her dress, thinking of tying up the bleeding wound. It didn’t matter that she had no idea who the boy was — she was not going to let him stay here hurt without doing anything.

She moved toward him, but he shuffled backward slightly, dragging the pouch with him.

"W-wh... who are you?" the boy asked shakily.

Sophia smiled softly. "I’m Sophia. And I’m going to help you, okay? I can see you’re injured. Let me help," she told him gently.

The boy just stared at her, then in a small voice said, "P-please... don’t k-kill me."

Sophia frowned. "I’m not going to do that. I’m just trying to help."

"That’s what they said," the boy whispered.

"Who?" Sophia asked. "Who told you that and hurt you?"

The boy pointed toward the far end of the nest, behind one of the eggs, where Sophia noticed two bodies.

She recognized the cloaks immediately — the same sigil she had seen in her dream. Their bodies, like the man she had seen earlier, were incomplete. Eyes gouged out.

"I’m not like them," she said, turning back to the boy.

"See — I’ll drop my weapons if that’ll make you feel safe. But let me tie that up, okay?"

The boy stared at her for a moment, then nodded weakly.

She smiled and carefully removed her swords and daggers, setting them aside before approaching him.

"What’s your name?" she asked gently as she reached for his injured arm.

"...T-Tarin," he stammered after a moment.

She smiled at him as she carefully moved his hand away from the wound — and then froze when she noticed the darkened mark crawling like a web across his arm.

Her throat tightened. She had seen something like this before.

She swallowed.

"Tarin..." Her voice lowered. "Did you get bitten by a Trihydra?"